(Feb 27, 2009) On February 18, 2009, the First Secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador was expelled from the country "for interfering in the country's internal affairs." This is the second expulsion of a U.S. diplomat from Ecuador in the month of February. The expulsion was announced after Police Headquarters presented a report at a meeting of the National Council for National Security (Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Nacional ). According to the report given by Ecuadorian Police Headquarters, the decision to expel was taken "after confirming the meddling of the U.S. diplomat in the [affairs of the] Special Police Investigations Unit" (Unidad de Investigaciones Especiales de la Policía).

This measure took place 11 days after the President of Ecuador's expulsion of an attaché with the Department of Homeland Security at the U.S. Embassy, for allegedly "trying to put conditions on economic aid for the National Police." The President of Ecuador justified his actions by claiming that a section of the U.S. Embassy that granted funding to the National Police of Ecuador insisted on screening members of the police eligible for specialized training, which the President deemed "inadmissible and unacceptable." (Ecuador expulse a diplomático de EE.UU., Granma Digital Internacional, Feb. 18, 2009, available at http://www.granma.cu/espanol/2009/febrero/mier18/ecuador2-e.html.)

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